Changing-Look AGNs -- I. Tracking the transition on the main sequence of quasars

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Main Authors: Panda, Swayamtrupta, Śniegowska, Marzena
Format: Preprint
Published: 2022
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author Panda, Swayamtrupta
Śniegowska, Marzena
author_facet Panda, Swayamtrupta
Śniegowska, Marzena
contents This paper is the first in a series of preparing and analyzing spectral and other properties for a database of already discovered Changing-Look active galactic nuclei (CL AGNs). Here, we focus on the spectral fitting and analysis of broad emission lines in a sample of 93 CL AGNs collected from the literature with existing SDSS/BOSS/eBOSS spectroscopy where the H$β$ emission line profile does not completely disappear in any epochs. Additionally, we have gathered older/newer spectral epochs from all the available SDSS data releases to make the database more complete. We use PyQSOFit and perform a homogeneous spectral decomposition of all of our SDSS spectra and tabulate the AGN continuum and emission line properties per epoch per source, chronologically. This further allows us to categorize the sources in our sample as \textit{Turn-On} or \textit{Turn-Off} and subsequently check for repeated occurrences of such phases. We then estimate the black hole mass (M$_{\rm BH}$) and the Eddington ratio (L$_{\rm bol}$/L$_{\rm Edd}$) per epoch per source where the required parameters are available and well-estimated. We realize the movement of the source in the M$_{\rm BH}$ versus L$_{\rm bol}$/L$_{\rm Edd}$ plane allowing us to check for systematic changes in the source's fundamental properties. We then track their transition along the optical plane of the Eigenvector 1 (EV1) schema and categorize sources that either stay within the same Population (A or B) or make an inter-population movement as a function of spectral epoch. We also test the Balmer decrement (H$α$/H$β$) of a subset of our sample of CL AGNs as a function of time and AGN luminosity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2206_10056
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Changing-Look AGNs -- I. Tracking the transition on the main sequence of quasars
Panda, Swayamtrupta
Śniegowska, Marzena
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
This paper is the first in a series of preparing and analyzing spectral and other properties for a database of already discovered Changing-Look active galactic nuclei (CL AGNs). Here, we focus on the spectral fitting and analysis of broad emission lines in a sample of 93 CL AGNs collected from the literature with existing SDSS/BOSS/eBOSS spectroscopy where the H$β$ emission line profile does not completely disappear in any epochs. Additionally, we have gathered older/newer spectral epochs from all the available SDSS data releases to make the database more complete. We use PyQSOFit and perform a homogeneous spectral decomposition of all of our SDSS spectra and tabulate the AGN continuum and emission line properties per epoch per source, chronologically. This further allows us to categorize the sources in our sample as \textit{Turn-On} or \textit{Turn-Off} and subsequently check for repeated occurrences of such phases. We then estimate the black hole mass (M$_{\rm BH}$) and the Eddington ratio (L$_{\rm bol}$/L$_{\rm Edd}$) per epoch per source where the required parameters are available and well-estimated. We realize the movement of the source in the M$_{\rm BH}$ versus L$_{\rm bol}$/L$_{\rm Edd}$ plane allowing us to check for systematic changes in the source's fundamental properties. We then track their transition along the optical plane of the Eigenvector 1 (EV1) schema and categorize sources that either stay within the same Population (A or B) or make an inter-population movement as a function of spectral epoch. We also test the Balmer decrement (H$α$/H$β$) of a subset of our sample of CL AGNs as a function of time and AGN luminosity.
title Changing-Look AGNs -- I. Tracking the transition on the main sequence of quasars
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.10056